Halton court delays lead to stay of impaired driving case

Halton court delays

Halton Region’s courthouses are “slipping further into a crisis situation” because of growing demands and limited resources, according to an Ontario Court judge.

Justice Stephen Brown made the statement in a written decision released last month in which he stayed charges against a man accused of impaired driving because of too many delays in court.

Antonio Papandrea arrived at the Burlington courthouse May 24 prepared for his trial. He and his lawyer, Jonathan Rosenthal, waited all morning only to find out shortly before 1 p.m. there was no way a judge could hear the case that day.

By September the case was still on hold, so Rosenthal argued the many months spent waiting for trial since Papandrea’s June 2011 arrest was just too long. By the time the case was supposed to have resumed on Oct. 19, it would have been 15 months and 20 days.

Brown found the delays to be unreasonable and caused Papandrea to suffer “financial and emotional prejudice.” He said in his decision that without more judicial resources, and more court space to deal with the “explosive growth” in the region, the situation is “leading to a breaking point.”

The backlog is getting worse, despite colleagues working hard on weekends, evenings and over vacation time, he wrote.

The argument that significant court delays violate someone’s charter rights has been around since a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1990. But experts warn the issue is creeping up again and is set to become a major problem in many busy courts across Ontario.

Rosenthal, a criminal defence lawyer based

in Toronto, agrees under-resourced and overwhelmed courthouses are a growing problem. He anticipates more and more charges will be stayed or withdrawn because of unreasonable delays.

“The backlog is easy to fix, it’s just a matter of resources,” he said.

Halton has two courts that deal with matters before the Ontario Court of Justice — Burlington and Milton. However, the 30-kilometre distance between the courthouses is making transfers difficult or impossible, Brown said in his decision.

The region has seen a 13 per cent increase in new cases and a 17 per cent increase in hearings since 2006, but it has also had a 22 per cent increase in cases withdrawn or stayed during that same time, with 11,598 cases disposed of in the 2010-11 year.

The Ministry of the Attorney General does not keep statistics about why cases are dropped, spokesperson Brendan Crawley said in an email.

“The causes of delay are complex and interrelated,” he said, adding that minimizing those delays requires partnerships across the justice system including police, judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers.

“The ministry works closely with the judiciary to ensure that court locations are effectively resourced, including consulting with the Ontario Court of Justice to review the status of the judicial complement,” Crawley said.

Most criminal cases are dealt with in Ontario court; only the most serious of cases go to Superior Court.

There are seven provincial judges dealing with these cases, plus family court, which itself has seen a 25 per cent increase in cases heard since 2006.

This is the same number of judges for the region since 2004, Brown said in his decision.

Compounding this is the fact Halton Region is one of the fastest growing areas in the province, with a population of 518,660 in 2011 compared to 390,235 in 2001.

John Hale is a criminal defence lawyer and part-time lecturer at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. He said the issue of cases being dismissed because of delays — a significant problem in the early 1990s — is creeping in again, particularly in growing urban areas.

He estimates there will be a 10-20 per cent increase in cases withdrawn or stayed in the next few years.

The problem is a complicated one, he said, because crime rates are stagnant or declining, but population growth and criminal charges are increasing.

Hale said where prosecutors used to have discretion around how certain charges are dealt with, that is no longer the case in matters such as domestic violence and impaired driving.

For instance, the Crown used to be able to offer plea deals on cases of impaired driving that wouldn’t impact an accused’s licence. Now they can’t, and many impaired cases proceed to trial because the accused has nothing to lose, he added.

The other major problem is that it’s become incredibly difficult to get legal aid. As a result, many people who can’t afford lawyers end up representing themselves in court. This often means it takes days to resolve matters that should take hours, Hale said.

Cases themselves are also increasingly complicated, with more paperwork and disclosure of evidence.